Sunday July 02, 2017

Cox was found guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement when it declined to disconnect alleged pirates, but the recent Supreme Court ruling concerning barring sex offenders from social media has given the company additional ammo for appeal. Their argument is that if convicted criminals have the right to use the Internet, accused file-sharers should have it, too. The company was ordered to pay music publisher BMG Rights Management $25 million in damages based on allegations of piracy monitoring outfit Rightscorp.

...Cox notes that the Government "may not suppress lawful speech as the means to suppress unlawful speech." This would be the case if entire households lost Internet access because a copyright holder accused someone of repeated copyright infringements. "The Court’s analysis strongly suggests that at least intermediate scrutiny must apply to any law that purports to restrict the ability of a class of persons to access the Internet," ISP writes. In its case against BMG, Cox was held liable because it failed to take appropriate action against frequent pirates, solely based on allegations of piracy monitoring outfit Rightscorp.